An interesting bit of WWII trivia
Our own Poetrooper sends us from his friend Boomer, this behind the scenes look at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, and the subliminal messages the US Navy subjected the Japanese diplomats to.
Poetrooper:
A bit of WWII trivia sent to me by my friend out in Guam, Boomer, which our many readers who speak Squiddish might take delight in, as no doubt all this was cooked up in the fleet’s Goat Lockers…
An interesting bit of WWII trivia
Why did the U. S. choose an Iowa-class battleship as the location for Japan’s surrender in World War II, even though they were in Tokyo Bay and could have used a building on land? Pure symbolism. Nothing says “you’re utterly defeated” more than having to board a massive enemy battleship in the waters of your own capital city. A naval vessel is considered sovereign territory for the purposes of accepting surrender. You just don’t get that if you borrow a ceremonial space from the host country.The Navy originally wanted the USS South Dakota to be the surrender site. It was President Truman who changed it to USS Missouri, Missouri being Truman’s home state. The Japanese delegation had to travel across water to the Missouri which sat at the center of a huge US fleet.
It’s a bit like those movie scenes where someone enters a big-wig’s office and the big-wig is sitting silhouetted at the end of a long room behind a massive desk. The appellant has to walk all the way to that desk along a featureless space, feeling small, exposed, vulnerable and comparatively worthless before the mogul enthroned in dramatic lighting before him. By the time he gets there the great speech he had prepared is reduced to a muttered sentence or two.
In addition, the USS Missouri flew the flag of Commodore Perry’s 19th Century gun-boat diplomacy mission that opened the closeted Edo-era Japan to the world, and forced upon them the Meiji restoration, which ended the rule of the samurai class. The symbolism here is pretty clear: “This is how we want you to be and remember what happens to countries that defy us.”
This was particularly humiliating for a proud country like Japan and that was entirely the point. The symbolism of the ceremony was even greater than that: The ship was anchored at the precise latitude/longitude recorded in Perry’s log during his 1845 visit, symbolizing the purpose of both visits to open Japan to the West. Perry’s original flag was also present having been flown all the way from the Naval Academy for the ceremony.
When the Japanese delegation came aboard they were forced to use an accommodation way (stairs) situated just forward of turret #1. The freeboard (distance between the ship’s deck and the water line) there makes the climb about twice as long as if it had been set up farther aft where the freeboard of the ship is less. This was even more of an issue for the Japanese surrender party as the senior member, Foreign Affairs Minister, Shigemitsu, was crippled by an assassination attempt in 1932, losing his right leg in the process.
The #1 and #2 turrets had been traversed about 20 degrees to starboard. The ostensible reason for this was to get the turret overhangs out of the way to create more room for the ceremony on the starboard veranda deck, but in fact, this would have only required traversing turret #2 had it been the real reason. However, the turret position also put the gun tubes directly over the heads of the Japanese. They were literally boarding the ship “under the gun.”
The honor guard of U.S. sailors was hand-picked for all to be over six feet tall, a further intimidation of the short-statured Japanese. The surrender documents themselves, one copy for the Allies and one for the Japanese, contained identical English-language texts, but the Allied copy was bound in good quality leather while the Japanese copy was bound with light canvas whose stitching looked like it had been done by a drunken tailor using kite string.
After the signing ceremony the Japanese delegation was not invited for tea and cookies; they were shuffled off the ship as an Allied air armada of over 400 aircraft flew overhead as a final reminder that American forces still had the ability to continue fighting should the Japanese have second thoughts on surrender.
Now you know.
Very nice, with a massive fly-over to put the exclamation point on the festivities. Nice also of Boomer to translate the Squiddish for our Nautically challenged friends. Saved me the trouble. *grin*
Category: Guest Post, Historical, Navy, We Remember
…and now, Missouri is getting a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Post Office.
With the anniversary of this ceremony coming up, I’m just grateful that the war was stopped before it went any further.
P.S. Some sailor forgot to put a title on the piece. 😛
Picky picky.
Heh….
Cool story. I marvel at all the idiosyncrasies of the event. Some staff officers well versed in protocol had some fun. I’m sure some chiefs were also in on exacting some ceremonial payback.
I’m friends with a 100 year old retired Air Force Colonel who flew a B-29 over the surrender ceremony! One of America’s greatest days.
Some other ships who played notable roles in the event:
USS Buchanan DD-484 ferried MacArthur, Nimitz and other Allied VIPs from their respective flagships. She earned 16 Battle Stars in the Pacific, including Savo Island, Cape Esperance, the Cruiser Night Action, and Kolombangara.
USS Lansdowne DD-486 carried the Japanese delegation to and from Missouri. She earned 3 Battle Stars in the Atlantic and 9 more in the Pacific, and was the ship that had scuttled USS Wasp after rescuing her survivors.
USS San Diego CL-53 was the first Allied surface ship to enter Tokyo Bay, and kept Yokosuka naval base under her guns for two weeks and accepted the individual surrender of the battleship Nagato. She had earned 18 Battle Stars in the Pacific, a record exceeded only by USS Enterprise (and one more than the 17 of USS San Francisco, often claimed as “the most decorated surface combatant”), and never suffered a single hit, nor a single casualty. She was specifically pointed out to the Japanese delegation as “the ship you couldn’t even hit, much less kill!”
TOW, if you like WWII Pacific battle history, let me recommend some very authentic fictional accounts by retired Navy Captain, P.T. Deutermann. His ship to ship battle sequences will have your hair standing on end. Check out his WWII series here:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/peter-t-deutermann/
Much obliged, Poe. Been occupying most of my spare time with scale models of late, but fire season is kicking off again, so most of my spare time won’t be at home. Hence, I’ll be reading more. Putting some more time in on that Red Dawn scene tonight. Still much to be done, but the M60’s hull is coming together, and I modified the halftrack to have one of the underseat compartments open. Also have to read up on how to simulate dust effects in scale.
For dust effects I’d recommend reading up on model railroad “weathering”, it’s what a lot of modelers do to add realism, there are plenty of videos on it as well.
My Uncle Jack was aboard USS Nicholas DD-449 as she escorted Missouri into Tokyo Bay and later ferried Japanese and other emissaries aboard Missouri for the surrender ceremonies. Chosen by Admiral Halsey to do so. Nicholas went all the way from Guadalcanal to Tokyo Bay.
https://ussnicholas.org/
Wow, never knew that until now. I still have pics of the big placard on the USS Missouri’s deck where MacArthur accepted the Japanese Surrender.
Yes, that is a sight to see and I highly recommend a trip to Hawaii just to Mo. Many years ago a group of Japanese tourists were looking at the sand table display in the main center of the park complex. Anyway, as they were standing aroung around it and pointing, theybwere laughing hilariously at the whole of Pearl and Americans specifically. Just coming out of Iraq I was pissed but before I could have said anything, a park ranger stopped them with a stern talking to. They were respectful for the rest of the time theybwere there. Park rangers can’t do that today without being chastised. All that to say that I had a cool photo of the plaque I took that showed a reflection of the US flag. Didn’t know that was there until the film was developed.
Forgive my mis-spellings and grammar errors. Early morning with little screen and big thumbs.
My Dad almost restarted the war when he took my Mom there during their anniversary trip ‘98. Japs treated the Arizona Memorial like it was Disneyland. It always seems like a 50/50 split with Japanese tourists between nice folks and total assholes.
TOW, it’s just like here–nicer folks from smaller cities, towns and rural settings–assholes from big urban areas.
Cool story with all the details. I “Like” details. When you got an enemy like they were down, kick’em in the nuts. If they holler and squirm…kick ’em again.
“Under the guns.” “Like” that too. Most appro bay.
Magnificent story. I love this history. Other than the name of the ship, I knew nothing of the other details mentioned. Thank your friend, Boomer, for this. Much appreciated. More of the same from others would be welcomed.
Stay tuned, I think Ex is working on something. Not for you, Chief, but I missed a “starboard” in the text. For our Nautically Challenged Friends, that means “right” as opposed to “port” for left.
Wow, Ed, you’ve gotten into the spirit of it even as I was composing my below complaint of all the Squiddish spoken here.
Good on ya, Chief.
By the way, just so all you old sea dogs who lurk here know, this Squiddish you speak, with its endless nautical perversions of the English language, its esoteric acronyms, and worst of all, ranks and ratings no one outside your secret handshaking, nautical fraternity could ever possibly decipher, might as well be Yiddish as far as all us old ground pounders who marshal here are concerned.
And I will put my neck in the noose by noting that our very own admin, AW1/Ed, is a seriously serial transgressor in this regard.
Would it be too much to ask all you squids to speak English? Or perhaps TAH could provide a translation service or a naval thesaurus? I’d like to volunteer Ed for the task. Do I hear a second?
Try it and I’ll two-block you from the spreader arm to the deck winch, to keep you from fouling the lazy sheet.
What’s next? Marking ducks?
DAMMIT, ‘ya gonna make me lasso the Mail Buoy as well?
We need our very own Professor Henry Higgins here at TAH for all these seafaring Eliza Doolittle’s.
I always love the part of the ceremony where McArthur says sternly, “These proceedings are closed.” The only thing missing is him adding, “Now get off my flagship.” It is just too bad we didn’t hang more of the criminal bastards. “The Bird” should never have escaped justice; likewise for those running that germ warfare facility the Japs operated in China.
War results in a whole bunch of compromises that in hindsight look … bad.
What was the price of avoiding five hundred thousand dead in an assault landing of the home islands? (and three times more subduing the whole place) An “unconditional” surrender that had the provision of an Emperor remains on his throne, and lawyerly proceedings for what would have been handled by drumhead or simple expediency.
See also “operation paperclip”.
I had a great friend who, sadly, passed away earlier this month at the age of 93. He was a plane captain on the USS Cowpens. It was one of the first ships to sail into Tokyo Bay for the signing. The Cowpens crew was also the first to go ashore in Tokyo after the ceremony. He had a lot of stories to tell about his time aboard that ship. It hurts deeply that my brother Carswell is gone.
Why are we hearing this now and notv75 years ago? For a culture that is strong on symbolism, this had to have an effect of a twisting knife. Haha…love it.
Another little known fact: No Marines were allowed to be involved in the surrender at all in any way. The Missouri had an 80 man Marine Detachment, and they were forbidden to be anywhere near the ceremonies. This is thought to be because the Army was pissed at the Marines for the relief of the CG of the Army 27th Division, plus the Army’s virulent hatred of Marines in general. About the only Marine they liked was General Lejeune. The Navy went along with this.
MacArthur’s hard-on for Marines is well-documented, so while I didn’t know about that particular dick move, I can’t say it’s surprising. For all his positive qualities, Ike had a similar hate-boner for the Marines, which is why he went out of his way to ensure no Marines saw combat in Europe. The pettiness is disappointing, to say the least.
Obviously some Marine kicked his dog and stole his girl friend.
Like him or hate him, MacArthur was indisputably a dick. Though General Kenneth did get him to (subtly) admit it once.
General Kenney. Fuck, I hate this iphone!
I have a hard time believing that Eisenhower went out of his way to keep Marines out of Europe. The Marines had all they could handle in the Pacific; why complicate logistics and aggravate interservice command problems and friction more than necessary? It seems to be a rational and logical decision to me.
I forgot to mention though that my wife’s father was on the Missouri on his way back home after the war, and he got to see it. He was with the 77th Division in the Phillippines and on Okinawa, so he paid his price of admission to be there.
My father was in the 77th and participated in the invasion of both Guam and Okinawa. He survived both invasions only to succumb to a heart attack at age 47 while mowing his yard. I now live in the N. part of Guam just around the corner from a memorial to the 77th. Likely my father traipsed past where I now live. Also while undergoing cancer treatment at Tripler in 2007 I was given a free tour of the Missouri (Big Mo). Stood right at the spot that the surrender was signed. Following that a tour of the USS Arizona. Both experiences that will never be forgotten. Especially the one at the Arizona realizing that so many of those we lost are entombed below.
Boomer, glad to see you showing up here. I was going to send you a link to this after the comments string got a bit longer.
Keep sending me stuff like this and I’ll keep feeding it to that English-challenged squid who posts it for us.
Aye aye!!! I’ll try my best to keep up to you all. There sure is a lot to take in at TAH. Good thing I’m retired with bookoo time to read. Not sure I can keep up with you tho. From AT to here…you haven’t lost your touch.
Wonderful article.
I love learning “stuff”!!
I don’t know where else to post this on TAH, so I’m going to post it here as this thread seems to get a lot of traffic.
Today is the five year anniversary of the day that Corporal Adam Wolff USMC gave his life to the rest of us in America. It is a day that will remain in my memory for life as he was the son of a lifelong friend of mine, Deb Christy.
Please post this everywhere you can today so Adam remains in the memory of those that watch it and that they know that he served and gave his all for them.
Nice tribute.
Semper Fi, Marine. . .